Graduation cap ideas for associates degree

Hello! I am hoping for some community advice on what seems to be a less-common situation.
Some backstory: I have been planning to move out of the US for many years, and we are now finally making efforts to iron out plans after the pandemic wiped the floor with us. My mother was raised in Japan, and I have had an upbringing immersed in this culture. It is our first choice for many reasons besides this- We are both very reserved, soft-spoken and gentle people, and everything we have heard (and know from personal experience) about Japan aligns with our preferred lifestyles. I am making efforts to relearn the language and we are now learning it together.
Major points of note:

• I own and run a small plant-based apothecary. Due to my line of work, I want to look into the dermatological side of kampo (traditional Japanese medicine). Given these two elements, what would be good employment avenues to pursue / connections to make when we make our preliminary visit? (One of my fellow local artisans owns and runs a small tea business and lived abroad in China for 10 years learning the traditions and making connections with growers- I am looking to achieve something similar)
• My partner is a carpenter and general contractor (he went to + graduated trade school and has been working as an independent contractor for 15+ years- he does carpentry/concrete/plumbing/electrical and everything else under the sun that has to do with construction), and has been looking to learn Japanese architecture and joinery. Similarly for him, what would be optimal employment avenues / connections to make?
• We are converting an old trailer into a tiny home (like so many folks are doing with vans and old schoolies nowadays) to live in when it is complete. What is Japan like in regards to wanderers in caravans?

Any advice is helpful- most travel / moving advice I have found pertains to students or people with advanced degrees in engineering or other similarly-technical fields. We, by contrast, are a couple of very down-to-earth, spiritual-minded and old-fashioned people who get anxious in big cities and are largely disconnected from the modern world. I have not been able to find much on moving to the Japanese countryside, so any insight in these areas is welcome!

Hi, I am a 47 yrs old woman bit confused with career choices, and writing here in a hope if someone of you can put light and guide me on my right career path. I Thank you with abundance, in advance to all who are willing to help me.
So I have a bachelor's and Master degree from my native country Pakistan, which has been accredited as an Associate Degree in USA. I also have around 10 years experience in Accounts/Finance field. (But With this limited qualification I won't be able to earn enough money where as a single parent I can support my family. I also tried to study and get Masteres degree here but with being a single parent of two college going kids it's really not possible for me, specially when I have to fulfill their college fees and all other needs. They Being full time students, my boys neither help much nor can earn enough.)
In year 2009 in USA I have gotten my Cosmetology license and have about 4 years experience also. ( But this field has many requirements like being on feet all day, having moody people on your chair, losing balance and being dizzy while on floor all day, fear of getting sued by clients or get fired if any of the service goes wrong, etc etc)
I have been active part of my small family business throughout my life and have life long experience with family business. (Small businesses are often compromised for being less popular. People like to shop big franchises super stores or online so sale is tough, customers insult vendors, customers bargain with small businesses, it's hard to buy merchandise, because wholesale cenders prefers to sell to big chain stores or franchises, profit margin is very low and in order to save on cost, one have to do everything by of your own so it's one man show)
All 3 fields are different and all have their pros and cons like working hours, health related issues, hours to stand on feet etc.
Now I am trying to pick a field in which I can earn enough to support myself and my kids' living, health, and education expenses, and have some money to save for my retirement also.
But I can't make my mind that which field to go into.

Back in May I would've thought after graduating with a STEM degree (BS in stats) should've made life easier. Nah, past 8 months have been a shitshow and a half. Get laid off of my first position after 3 months, spend 2 miserable months trying to find new work while subbing my income bagging groceries, get shitty job that I hate now for peanuts pay in an industry I have nothing to do with and no future in (healthcare). I finally get offered a new job at an investment bank yesterday, and today they just called and said management decided not to go forward with the job itself. FUCK. I literally wanna put my fucking fist through a wall right now. It's not fucking fair.
I guess what I'm asking is for early career advise to find stability and a decent paycheck. It infuriates me that I have a STEM degree and yet still make a crap ($55,000/year) salary in one of the most HCOL areas in this country. It fucking sucks, I'm really questioning why the hell I went to college in the first place.

I'm sorry in advanced for the incoherent post. I literally needed to get this off my chest and didn't know where/how, as I can't speak with anyone about this.
I was an ugly duckling (I have proof on my profile if you need to see) and my cousin even with hindsight, was a 9/10. Strong cheekbones, defined jaw, light-skinned (A big thing in my community) and taller than most boys his age. If life can be compared to seasons, then his adolescence was definitely his summer. For me? The harshest of winters. I had to deal with girls being nice to me/pretending to be interested in the hopes of winning the affection my cousin. I still remember the memories of sleeping in the same room as he made love (If that's what you can call it, considering she was one of many) to a girl I had a crush on. Being the weak little bitch that I was, I also used to fetch free condoms for him, from the local community health centre. Can you possibly understand how embarrassing it is to have to ask for condoms, only to have the people you're asking looking at you like "Why would he need it?".
I developed my humour to the point where I was labelled the funniest guy in school and that was my saving grace. I wore it as my armour. If it hurt, I'd force myself to find humour in it. However, deep beneath the surface a powerful inferiority complex was taking root. I soon started dressing in all black, baggy-fit clothing. It also didn't help that I also developed severe acne (That required accutane twice) and a severe crossbite (That required braces TWICE to fix). Don't get me wrong, I love my cousin. We share many memories I hold dear to me, but sometimes I wish I didn't have to grow beside such an attractive person. It really fucked me up. Even now that I'm objectively better looking, I'm still that pathetic, acne ridden, buck toothed filth that I was for all those years. I don't think that this is something I can overcome without professional help, as it's too deeply ingrained, so I just accept it. Sometimes the depression overwhelms me and I fall back on vices that I know I shouldn't be relying on such as porn. I do admit that I need help as my past is chipping away at my soul. I refuse to date because the idea that anyone could ever want me in any capacity, or find me attractive to any degree is amusing to me.
Living with my cousin skewed my perception of the world and in particular, how girls/women react to boys/men that they find worthy. I was/am not one of those guys and I'm just trying to deal with it rather than numbing my emotions to the point of apathy.
/Endrant.

Hi,
This is a very uninformed and nebulous question but it’s been on my mind for a couple of weeks and I wonder if there’s any substance to it.
I’m a junior doctor specialising in radiology. Soon to be a consultant. A few of my consultant colleagues act as expert witnesses on the side- how lucrative is this? Is there much demand for these expert witnesses?
If I were to do a law degree part time is there any route to becoming a lawyer with a view to working in the medicolegal sector? Again, how lucrative is this? Would my skill set as a doctor and consultant radiologist give me a significant advantage at making ££?
Am mid 30s- how long would it take to build any meaningful career?
No idea about any of the routes into law or any subsequent post grad training etc so ELI5 please.

I will be graduating from university this year with a Molecular Biology degree as an international student. I went into university thinking I want to be a geneticist. But, then after interning at a lab, I discovered that I disliked the long hours at the lab. I disliked the fact that I had to study the lab materials even after my work ended. I have a minor in economics. It seems that I am quite interested in developmental economics since it relates a lot to what I would normally read in my free time. However, my grades for economics are not as good (minimum B+) as my molecular biology courses (minimum A-). Also, I havent done any type of internship related to economics. I come from a not well-off family and so doing graduate study would require scholarships for me. I have no idea what to do with my life. I dont even know if I want to continue my biology career or switch.
I have also been exteremly lazy and I keep on feeling insecure on what to do with my life after university. I am graduating with no understanding of which career i want to pursue, little job experience, and little motivation. How do I fix my life?

I retired at 57, married with three children. Two have graduated college, and one is still living with us and is attending college.
This first year has been interesting. I had an idea of what it would be like, but like so many things that are idealized, they often turn out to be quite different.
I got tired of working and found myself working more and more in my business as opposed to on it. I climbed many hills and realized I didn't want to climb anymore. I sold it all, and hung it up.
I have traveled some, but that gets old after some time. I have no interest in buying stuff. I did when I was younger, but now that I can buy most things, I have no desire to. One of my Dad's buddies a couple of decades ago retired early, and he said that the worst thing about being retired is that you never have a day off. I have to laugh because I can relate. Is it Saturday? I thought it was Thursday
My mind has finally slowed down a bit after working my whole life, which I think is a good thing. I have become more appreciative of smaller things, and my patience has started to improve with people in general. I bought an expensive lawn mower and love taking care of my lawn. My wife and I eat at home most of the time, eating out often really does get old. I do nap once a day and watch a lot of sports on TV. My oldest child is married , and I became a Grandfather for the first time. I find it ironic that I am now the one who wants to have long chats on the phone with my son and can't get enough of my granddaughter. I was always so busy with life and kids when my parents called, now I'm in their shoes and have to put it in perspective.
It's not how I imagined it, but sometimes the small things that are not expected make it very worthwhile.

1. While Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" is probably one of the crooner's best-known songs, it was originally very different. Turns out, we have Robert De Niro to thank for it! Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb were tapped to write music for Martin Scorsese's 1977 film, New York, New York, which stars Liza Minnelli and De Niro. When the duo previewed the songs they had written, De Niro thought the title track, which was connected to his character, was too lighthearted. Although Kander and Ebb said they thought De Niro seemed "pompous" in telling them to rewrite the song, they took the criticism to heart and ended up penning their new version of the song in just 45 minutes.
2. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is my favorite movie of all time, so it's honestly criminal that I've never done a deep dive into some behind-the-scenes moments from the film! John Hughes, known for his teen movies, ended up writing the script in just a few days in order to get a draft finished before the Writers Guild of America went on strike. The script was reportedly so strong that it was barely edited before filming started. The movie is widely considered to be a love letter to Hughes's Chicago hometown and is filled with references to his own upbringing and shots of the city's skyline. In fact, Hughes even gave Ferris the same address as his childhood home, and his bedroom reportedly resembled Hughes's.
3. If I had to learn about this giraffe mating ritual, then it's only fair that you do too, okay? Unlike other animals, giraffes don't have a set mating season. Instead, they have an estrous cycle, which resembles a human menstrual cycle, except this cycle swaps blood for urine. When a male giraffe approaches a female giraffe, he begins to rub against her, which she takes as a signal to begin peeing. The male giraffe then tastes her pee to see if she's fertile, and thus, the mating ritual begins. A typical giraffe pregnancy lasts for 400–460 days. Male giraffes typically have no role in raising their offspring.
4. In 2007, Lisa Nowak became the first NASA astronaut to be arrested when she drove across the United States to confront a woman who was dating a fellow astronaut with whom Nowak had also had a relationship. About a decade after graduating from the US Naval Academy, Nowak was selected to be an astronaut at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she specialized in robotics. Nowak said she was deeply affected by the 2003 Columbia space shuttle explosion because her best friend, astronaut Laurel Clark, died. Nowak told NASA that her children convinced her to continue on with her space career despite her unease.
5. Despite what you might believe after watching The Greatest Showman, P.T. Barnum was not a good guy. He had a long history of animal cruelty and was known for mistreating enslaved people and people with disabilities. He even reportedly hated the people who paid money to come see his exhibits. Barnum was allegedly frustrated that people were taking their time during visits to his museum, so he decided to post signs reading "This Way to the Egress" all over the place. He (correctly) believed that most of the visitors wouldn't know that "egress" meant "exit," so when they followed the signs, they ended up unknowingly leaving the entire museum. As a result, many people paid to reenter, bringing home even more money for Barnum.
6. Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" is essentially History 101 in song form. The track name-drops 118 historical events from 1949 to 1989, including everything from pivotal moments in the civil rights movement to details from sports and pop culture history. Joel was inspired to write the song after having a conversation with Sean Lennon, who was then in his 20s, while in the recording studio. One of Lennon's friends allegedly said that it was a terrible time to be a young person. Joel, who was about to turn 40, reportedly said that his own younger years hadn't been that easy either.
7. Coney Island's skyline looked a lot different back in the 1800s. The Brooklyn boardwalk was once home to a 200-foot-tall elephant-shaped hotel! The hotel, known as the Elephantine Colossus, was built in 1885 and contained 31 rooms, a concert hall, and a museum. The elephant's head housed an observatory, and its eyes served as telescopes. The real kicker was that the hotel was built several years before the Statue of Liberty was completed, so the giant elephant was often the first thing immigrants saw when they reached New York. At some point, the hotel was seen as gimmicky and lost most of its clientele. Soon, sex workers began moving in. In 1896, Elephantine Colossus burned down and was never rebuilt.
8. During Ronald Reagan's 1966 California gubernatorial campaign, he began eating jelly beans in an attempt to curb his pipe-smoking habit. His jelly beans of choice were the Goelitz Mini Jelly Beans from the Herman Goelitz Candy Co. Once the company caught wind of Reagan's love for the treat, they began to send the politician a monthly shipment of candy and even gifted the governor with a custom jelly bean jar. After Reagan's two terms as governor ended, the company continued to send him jelly beans. In 1976, Goelitz debuted their latest creation: the Jelly Belly. Within two years, Reagan's entire jelly bean shipment shifted to include only Jelly Belly jelly beans.
9. There are two main groups of whales: baleen whales, which include species like the blue whale and the humpback whale; and toothed whales, consisting of orcas, belugas, and sperm whales. While you probably guessed that toothed whales are named as such because they have teeth, baleen whales have baleen plates in their mouths, which help them filter out krill and other food. Toothed whales also have a "melon" in their foreheads. The melon is a mass of tissue that helps with communication and is crucial for echolocation, which they use to find food and to navigate underwater.
10. In 1997, construction on Disneyland's California Adventure Park was halted after Princess Diana was killed in a limo accident in a Paris tunnel on Aug. 31. California Adventure was supposed to include a ride called Superstar Limo, which involved guests boarding a limo and embarking on a high-speed chase through some of Los Angeles's biggest landmarks in order to get to the Disney offices in time to sign a huge movie contract. Riders also had to evade the paparazzi. Once the ride ended, passengers were encouraged to buy mock tabloids featuring the pictures the "paparazzi" had taken of them. Following Diana's death, Disney knew they could no longer debut the ride. Soon, they began to brainstorm alternative ideas to replace the limo theme.
11. Donald Gorske, who is known as the ultimate Big Mac fan, has reportedly eaten at least one McDonald's Big Mac every day for the past 50 years. As of May 2022, Gorske believes he has consumed about 32,340 Big Macs. He told Guinness World Records that he typically eats two Big Macs a day, although he revealed that at one point, his daily diet included nine burgers! "May 17, 1972, was the day I got my first car," Gorske said. "I drove to McDonald’s, ordered my first three Big Macs, went in the car, and ate them. And I said right there that I’m gonna probably eat these the rest of my life, and I threw the cartons in the backseat and started counting them from day one." Despite his Big Mac diet, Gorske and his wife say that doctors have given him a clean bill of health.
12. Although you probably picture Queen Elizabeth II wearing one of her signature colorful skirt suits, her fashion history is actually quite fascinating! Elizabeth was photographed wearing pants only once during her entire reign. In 1970, she was reportedly interested in updating her look, and asked her tailor for a custom pantsuit to wear during her royal tour in Australia. It's safe to assume that Elizabeth wasn't too fond of the outfit, as she was never again seen wearing pants in public. In order to maintain professionalism and avoid any type of fashion mishap, her dress hems were always cut below the knee.
13. In 1986, Clint Eastwood ran for mayor of Carmel, California, in part because he wanted to overturn the town's strict law regarding ice cream sales. Eastwood announced his intention to run for office in 1985 after he reportedly found the City Council very difficult to work with when he wanted to turn property he owned into office space. He also cited a 1929 law in Carmel that banned the sale of ice cream cones as another reason for his campaign. In April 1986, he defeated incumbent Charlotte Townsend. His first order of business? He removed from office all of the people who supported the ice cream ban, thus allowing the sale of ice cream cones in Carmel for the first time in decades.
14. Chances are, you read George Orwell's Animal Farm in school. In the novel, a group of animals team up to rebel against the farmer who owns them, only to end up living in a communist dictatorship led by pigs. Although Orwell said that the book was the first time he had successfully been able to blend politics and art, he had a hard time finding a publisher. Several publishing houses turned down the book because they felt uneasy about its political stance. Secker & Warburg ultimately agreed to publish Animal Farm, and the book became a hit and was even used by the CIA as a propaganda tool during the Cold War.
15. In 1928, Huey Long was elected governor of Louisiana on a promise of helping people who had been neglected by the federal government. He soon had his sights set on Washington and won a Senate seat. But before leaving for DC in 1932, he had the lieutenant governor replaced by two successors who promised to follow Long's commands. In the Senate, he created the “Share Our Wealth” program, which many thought was part of his bid for the presidency. In 1935, Long was assassinated by a political rival. Despite his death, his impact in the state lived on. In 1940, a study showed that rural schoolchildren not only had no idea that Long had been killed but also believed he was president.
16. The Real Housewives franchise put Bravo on the map for its depiction of the wild and wacky antics of wealthy women around the country, but it originally looked like a much different show! Scott Dunlop, the original producer of the Real Housewives of Orange County, got the idea for the show in 1986 when he moved from Los Angeles to Coto de Caza, one of the world's largest gated communities, located in Orange County, California. Dunlop began to notice that many of his female neighbors spent their days shopping and playing golf while their husbands went to work.
17. The first meal eaten on the moon included bacon bits, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, and a pineapple-grapefruit beverage. Bacon reportedly had a long history when it came to space travel. It was a staple during the Gemini missions and became a favorite among many astronauts. Despite all of the bacon love, it's since disappeared from space menus. Now the closest thing to bacon is a sausage patty that has to be rehydrated with warm water before being eaten.
18. Oscar Gamble, a baseball player who spent over 20 years in the major leagues, was known not only for his on-field play but also for his Afro, which sparked quite the controversy. In 1973, Gamble arrived at the Cleveland Indians training camp sporting an Afro. Although many Black basketball players had Afros, the hairstyle wasn't too popular among baseball players. Baseball was often seen as more conservative, and during the 1970s, the Afro was associated with the Black Power movement. Gamble's hair quickly became controversial. "People took one look at that hair and thought I was a bad guy," Gamble said in 1979. "There were some sportswriters who wouldn’t talk to me. They thought I was some kind of militant, with my beard and my hair."
19. In December 1990, Iben Browning, who claimed that he was a climatologist, predicted that a major earthquake was going to hit the St. Louis area on Dec. 3. In New Madrid, a Missouri town located on a fault line, people began stockpiling supplies, while others left town completely. Browning reportedly used weather patterns to make his predictions, although his exact methods were never publicized. Although scientists didn't vocally deny Browning's claims, it was believed that they didn't support his prediction, since it's impossible to predict an earthquake. The earthquake never happened. In fact, the area has not faced an earthquake at the magnitude Browning predicted in the three decades since.
20. While kangaroos are known for their hopping abilities (they can jump about 25 feet in one go!), they are unable to go backward because their big feet and long tails prohibit any backward movement. This anatomical hindrance has since been used by their native Australia as a symbol. The kangaroo was reportedly included on the Australian coat of arms to represent the idea that Australia is a nation that is always moving forward.
21. And finally, Elouise Cobell, who was also known as Yellow Bird Woman, fought for Native Americans to have control over their land and finances. Cobell was born on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, where her family did not have running water or electricity. Her great-great-grandfather notably stood up to the US government in the 19th century. When Cobell was 4 years old, her father built a one-room schoolhouse that she attended until she was in high school. Cobell reportedly took notice of her family's complaints about the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency that many suspected mismanaged the profits from land and trusts owned by Native Americans.

Link to article

The CSU has sent an email to all Engineering and Computer Science students to vote for the ECA's General Election until March 23. How you vote is YOUR decision but some of the proposals on the ballots are misleading and don't fully explain the implications.
Share with other Engineering and Computer Science students, and upvote to prevent biased students from downvoting this PSA.
Fee Increases
The ECA, Space Concordia and SAE are respectively requesting a fee increase of $2.50/credit, $0.50/credit and $0.45/credit, or an increase of $3.45/credit per semester to be automatically increased by the greater of 2% or the rate of inflation. That works out to $51.75 extra per semester.

	Extra Cost
Per Semester	$51.75
Per Year	$103.50
Per 4 Year Degree (with automatic increases)	$426.58

Allowing automatic fee increases without member approval would also burden future students especially during periods of abnormal inflation such 2022 when it stood at 6.8%.
I was going to vote yes thinking it was a small amount, but then I realized it was misleading once the real cost has been factored in. Many of my friends feel the same way once they realize how fast a $0.50 fee increase accumulates to.
What they also fail to mention is there are 10,688 undergrads in engineering, assuming on average each takes 12 credits, that works out to $128,000 for Space Concordia and SAE alone per year each. The average member association make do with a fraction of that budget and do wonderful things.
For those amounts, I'd like to know what they are trying to achieve to justify a sudden windfall of that magnitude? These associations already receive a budget from the ECA. Why the double dipping?
What students don't see is the scheming that goes behind their back on how creative they get to try to push an agenda that students have consistently refused. The non-consensual annual fee increases is an attempt to circumvent membership approval.
From the ECA's 2021-01-19 Council Meeting Minutes
From the ECA's 2021-01-19 Council Meeting Minutes
Accountability
While I'm expecting a bunch of ECA and Member Association members to downvote and start bashing this post, here is a taste of what accountability of our student fees looks like.
The CSU publishes their audited reports religiously, but not the ECA claiming COVID and other bs excuses as why they don't promptly publish theirs, yet its convenient they don't mention they have unreleased audited reports.
From the ECA's 04-01-21 BOD Meeting Minutes
There are allegations that of financial records discrepancies, a fancy way of saying missing money, that the ECA has not been upfront about to students.
From the ECA's 04-01-21 BOD Meeting Minutes
From the ECA's 04-01-21 BOD Meeting Minutes
Assistant Election Officer (AEO)
We as members should elect the Chief Election Officer and Assistant Election Officer to maintain impartiality of the election process not the ECA. They essentially want to be judge, jury and executioner in their own trial. Student associations are already quite sus when it comes to accountability and allowing the ECA to elect the CEO and AEO would remove independence. No lie, check out the ECA's official meeting minutes on their web site, a former Space Concordia president tried to gut the CEO's independence because she "pissed her off".
From the ECA's 2021-01-19 Council Meeting Minutes

Ok do I just got off the phone with Edfinacial about my loans. On the website it lists my loans as being Admin Non Capping-Bwr Defense. Which means they are under review for a borrower defense claim. I never filed one for my undergraduate loans only my graduate loans. I am wondering if your school was in the list they are reviewing them anyways.
Anyone else have this on their loans and never filed a claim for them.
I also found out that the 2040 forbearance date is only a place holder. It will be reset once all loans are reinstated or discharged.

I am an actively serving altar server at my parish, and for a long time I have been interested and enthusiastic to the idea of becoming a clergyman for my church, and this is now especially the case, as I am trying to make my way in life towards the seminary. I have discussed this with my priest and even my local bishop, and from my understanding I need to graduate college in order for them to even consider me becoming a subdeacon. I understand this is just part of the process but what confuses me is that I have a friend that moved to my church who is actively serving as a subdeacon (keep in mind we are the same age and neither of us are in college right now) as well, my former Sunday school teach, who has moved away by now, never went to college and according to him, his tonsuration just happened to him one day without warning. I know I’m probably leaving out a lot of information, so feel free to ask me for more context, but am I doing something wrong here? Is my enthusiasm/willingness and experience as an altar server inadequate or am I just unlucky?

Following the big announcement, Kuru and the Dev team did a Q&A session regarding the announcement and what it means for the future for the service on their Discord. I have compiled the questions here.
 
Like ChatGPT?
yup
I don't think NAI owes anyone anything tho? They own the cluster outright, as far as I understand
It's ours to use how we see fit
You gonna restrict the output content to anything?
nope
Where are the cluster being located? Which legal jurisdiction?
US, it's coreweave
Do you plan to make more specialized models for text/image gen than we currently have?
yup models from totally scratch
Will it be comparable in power to GPT3 or 4?
3.5
Does that include image models?
yes
How does that damn thing even cost?
a lot :D
Are you focusing on story-telling still, or also AI assistant tasks like GPT does?
We will have a general model that can do both of these things very well
how the fuck, sponsors?
NAI is big, our own money, no investors
how long do we think the training will take? is it going to be available by the second half of 2023? or would an estimate like 2024 be more realistic?
not 2024, it will be fast with the H100s
does Anlatan plan to contribute to Open-source AI research?
we already did before, we do time to time according to what the context is
Is there any rough estimation (can even be off by weeks or months) how long it would take to train a model the size of Krake or the size of GPT-3?
a krake model would take a week or so i think
Which H100s are you using?
we have the SXM5s
Is that training, fine-tuning, or both?
training from scratch
are the H100s just for training or also inference?
both
Would this mean that NAI can have models bigger than 20b?
better and bigger
Are we gonna see any big subscription price changes upcoming?
We didn't plan anything like that
Will there be any cap or quota per houday when it releases?
Hopefully not? I mean likely not lol. I don't see why we would need that.
The pricing model already seems a bit "the only worthwhile sub tier is Opus" and every other tier just seems to funnel into Opus.
I think we will make all tiers very attractive
What if bots start using your service and spamming requests?
We already do have that happening and have rate limits for bots.
Any plans for bigger models?
Bigger and better models, saying better because training for more data matters more at this size regime than actually scaling up much more
You mentioned not having as much transparency about model training. But will you have a public link to watch a model train live once you've committed to training? Like how the 20b model had a page where you could watch it train live.
probably not?
What does this mean for Sage's dream of the ultimate dungeon experience?
he will have it
Does fp8 training work well for LLMs?
yup, already integrated
Will photorealism be a focus for an image gen model? Or can we be expecting better models catered to what we have now?
planning more photorealism over time more options
They are not using pilev2. they're using their own dataset tuned specifically for their use cases.
Have there been any external pressure from outside groups to encourage you to implement any kind of filtering on generations?
No
Did you and Eleuther decide to release these news together, or is this just a coincidence?
Coincidence
If you train a new bigger better awesome model - what will you name it?
We didn't decide actually
They are training the models currently.
Curious how that amazing Coreweave deal was negotiated. A lot of AI companies would kill for that kind of deal.
We are very close with coreweave
Will future models be accompanying text generation with relevant image generation for stories?
thats a UI thing
Are you training the new model from scratch? Or off of something like llama
Scratch
Will the new/future models be under the highest payment tier like Krake? Or will they be available for Scroll and Tablet?
There will be new models for all tiers
Are you also planning on updating TTS as well as in addition to Text/Image gen?
at one point we probably want to but we haven't planned anything
Are you thinking of replacing your current models fully with your own trained ones?
yes
Would the free trial use Euterpe then? Instead of Sigurd?
free trial already uses euterpe
Any idea if the datasets you guys have would train models with a stronger grasp on the details of niche pop-culture universes than GPT-3/4 or whatever character.ai is running?
dataset has a bunch of data about pop culture/characters yeah
I understand the lack of transparency in regards to the development of new models, but is there any plans to improve communication in general regarding the service?
We hope to do more showing than talking if we can.
Does this announcement mean NovelAI will be out of beta soon?
idk why we are still in beta honestly so one day
Will you keep the legacy options available?
yup
Okay, so if I'm getting this right, besides new image models, we're getting new text models for AI storytelling?
yes
Are you prioritizing one over the other as of right now?
working on text models right now, but we worked on both
I heard that code in the dataset gives a chain-of-thought abilities to the modell. Is 3% enough for model to have those abilities?
We will see I guess. We have some CoT in the dataset as well
I hope old ones will be not forgotten and updated too?
why would they be updated
Will there be bigger context size?
yes
How expensive will the tiers become?
We didn't plan price changes
Any plans how much it'll increase or is that more a "We'll see what will be worth it" thing?
We'll see but I want to push as much as I can, not giving the full plans here yet
Will this announcement mean any new image models or is the focus going to be primarily on text?
Both, working on text right now.
Will NAI be open to exploring music models in the future?
It's too risky.
I know you mentioned you haven't looked into TTS updates, but hypothetically speaking if you had would you be able to allow us to upload our own voice samples to train or is that too much of a legal minefield?
I would like to not do that.
Due to your partnership with Nvidia will you have a filter?
We are just paying Coreweave for the cluster. We don't have a direct partnership with Nvidia or whatever. It's all funded by us.
Is it possible that the textgen side of NovelAI could have official documentation in the site itself similar to ImageGen?
We are planning to do this.
Textgen is going to get updated... right?
Yes.
Will custom modules be removed?
No.
Do you all maintain your commitment to privacy for textgen?
Yes please re-read the announcement blog
Will the new models be able to code?
to a degree yeah, but they don't have much code in the dataset
Will we be getting a mobile app soon? Is that still in the plans?
For full NAI? No.
Will the website become more mobile friendly?
Yes.
Are Krake modules dead because new models?
Krake modules are not dead.
Will the new model be able to do furry stuff better?
I can guarantee this.
 
I, for one would say that I'm extremely excited at the announcement and can't wait until we can get our hands on what the devs have been cooking.

Since we are unable to force biometrics on the iPhone, the lowest common denominator becomes the PIN for device access.
I am getting concerns from management that a 6 digit non-simple PIN isn’t strong enough, when someone could potentially grab that pin and suddenly have access to a user’s Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and Sharepoint etc…
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make the unlocking process on the iPhone more secure? Or have any other ideas that might mitigate the concern? (I don’t want to require additional PINs for each application, because then the users would rebel) Also, per M$, using periodic re-authentication in CAP isn’t recommended.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I grew up around guys and they always had games. I suck at games so I rarely played accept for my DS which I loved. My uncle ended up teaching me a ton about computers from age 10-14 then I got my first bf and the interest just went into the back ground. I tried college for biology and failed out. But that was right after HS, I'm turning 24 this summer. Loonnggg winded words later is this a plausible idea?? Anyone have experience in the field or in the degree? I've got a lot of memory loss problems so Im just scared about going back to school.

Hi, I’ve posted here before asking for advice but general rundown: I’m a sociology major with a criminology concentration and psychology minor. I don’t want to go to grad school immediately after graduating, and have been considering using my degree to become a paralegal. I explained to my advisor this process. In my state most firms just want a Bachelors and 6 months of paralegal training. She recommended I switched my minor from psych (I have 3 credits left lol) to paralegal studies to help aid in this decision.
Does anyone know if this will help on my resume? Will I still have to enroll in a paralegal studies program to receive my certification? This may depend on the firm I realize. I’ve been trying to research and nothing has come up. Just wondering if anyone else did something similar.

Im a 2nd year electrical apprentice currently working at a solar company. The job isn't bad but I feel like I'm more of an installer than an actual apprentice. I cant seem to find a job I get no call backs and when I do the pay is no more than $14 an hour and it's starting to become very discouraging. I have an Associate of Applied Science degree but that doesn't seem to help me at all. Do y'all have any advice for getting jobs? Interview tips?

I started working at a restaurant/music venue when I was 18 and that’s the only career I’ve had since. But I’m looking to get out of it and find something new.
Problem is that I have an associates degree that doesn’t help me much. I’ve been toying with the idea of going back to school but I’m just not sure what I want to do.

Hi PFC, I recently got an accepted offer on my first house with completion date of July 1, 2023. My mortgage broker is trying to get me locked into some terms on variable mortgages (20% down, 30yr amort) and is very insistent on a variable mortgage product that has fixed payments with payment allocation fluctuating between principal and interest depending on rates (product is with TD).
Personally, fluctuating mortgage payments doesn't really concern me so I specifically asked for a standard variable product. However, he mentioned that there was no downside to the TD product and there isn't a "premium" associated with having the fixed payments. I'm skeptical of this due to TD bearing some additional degree of risk and every time I suggest a traditional variable product with the lowest rate possible, he redirects me to TD's product.
Am I right to be skeptical? Given my insensitivity to fluctuating payments, should I just seek to find the lowest rate possible or are there other factors I should consider? Any tips for navigating the conversation with the mortgage broker and ensuring my interests are best served?
Thanks in advance for the insights!